updated 10:45 pm EDT, Tue June 26, 2012

Sales ban effective after Apple pays $2.6 million bond

Northern District of California Judge Lucy Koh has issued an injunction against Samsung to stop it from selling the the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the United States. The judge's order becomes effective once Apple posts a $2.6 million bond to protect Samsung against damages if the injunction is overturned.

The judge had previously denied Apple the requested injunction, which it says has caused harm to the company because Samsung has infringed on patents as well as copied the look and feel of the iPad. A federal appeals court overturned that decision with a statement suggesting that Samsung had infringed with the tablet. Her judgement today was clear in saying that "although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products."

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 line, currently on sale, is considered a separate product line, and not affected by today's injunction. There are still intellectual property issues at stake that do involve the Galaxy Tab 2, but these are due to be ironed out in the trial at the end of July.

Samsung has not released a comment on the injunction, other than filing an appeal on the judgement at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet reiterated a previous statement saying that Samsung's "blatant copying" is wrong. The judge has given no reason why she issued the injunction, rather than during the scheduled hearing, which was set for Friday.